Hi all - thank you so much for the discussion on this topic. My friend and I met with the superintendent and asst. super. and while we were given some good suggestions, it didn't quite go as I had envisioned it would. In the end, the super. gave us his spiel about how gifted kids are not the priority because there are so few of them and so gifted programming is not in the top tier of his priority list $$$ wise, though he has plans to have teachers trained in differentiation esp. with the new math curricula being piloted. He actually put it back on us and said all he could suggest right now is going back to our own school and finding teachers who would be willing to work and train us (parents, skilled community members) to provide mentoring opportunities to GT kids.
My motivation to advocate was significantly deflated after that meeting. I think the super. and asst. super definitely do have the needs of GT kids on their radar, but their hands are tied because of the economy, funding, other issues in the district that apparently are more pressing.
I need to go back and re-read all the suggestions here and hopefully that will give me some much needed inspiration and motivation.
